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View Full Version : Brandon Walker, Dick Foster and The VIIIth



The VIIIth
1/26/2006, 12:13 PM
I placed a call to Coffeyville, Kansas yesterday to an old friend. Oddly enough, Coach Foster told me that he had just gotten off the phone with another mutual friend, Merv Johnson. Dick Foster, besides being a good friend of mine over the years is the old Coffeyville Junior College Red Ravens head coach. Some of Coach Fosters players I was able to watch back in the old days were Mike Rozier and Ron Springs among many others. More importantly, Dick used to be the Recruiting Coordinator for OU in the 90's and he and Merv worked together for a number of years in OU's athletic department.

Dick was the real brains behind Boo Blakes recruiting prowess.

On to Walker. Coach tells me he is still amazed that the young man did not go to MSU. The Spartans picked up a WR from CCJC and have recruited the area pretty hard. I was told that over 40 Jayhawk Conference players have D1 offers this year. With Walker being a Michigan native...

The bottom line is he feels that Walker should be a Sooner. Without going into details here, he related to me that OU and Coach Stoops have bent over backwards to get Walker on board and that the CCJC coaches are firmly in the OU corner. There is no doubt that Walker also has an allure for FSU and Foster admits that Bowden is a wild card that can't be discounted and cannot eliminate the Noles from contention.

What he's having some difficulty with is Walkers overall talent. Right now he's 25 to 50 lbs overweight and Dick admits that he's athletically
talented but his take is that he'll give you two great plays and then he might take the next three off. Foster says coaching will overcome that and the real premium on Walker is that he has three years to compete, learn and get in shape. He is not comfortable with being able to report that Walker is ready to play at the D1 level at this time, he even mentioned a year of seasoning at OU is exactly what is needed. He told me that OU's offseason strength and conditioning program is the Nations best, hands down and that Walker could emerge as a force.

Coach Foster is also surprised that Walker is dragging this recruiting process out. One key bit of intel is that the primary Coffeyville coach that Walker relies on as a mentor is on the recruiting trail for the JUCO and is not available personally to assist Brandon in his decision until later in the week. JUCO coaches are on the same recruiting schedules that D1 coaches must adhere to.

While not privy to the conversation between Dick and Merv, nor did I ask, Dick volunteered that it was not a conversation about Walker so much as Dick was targeting OU with his specialized recruiting film service called Dick Fosters JUCO Recruiting Service. Apparently he has taken in a partner with the player film distribution service he runs and the service will be renamed or fly under the flag of the College Coaches Network. Their emphasis is on all JUCO players outside of the state of California and high school talent in KS and Mo. The service is available only to colleges and their athletic departments.

One last thing and this was a bit sad. He keeps in touch with his former players and told me about Ron Springs (CCJC, Ohio State, Dallas Cowboys)who played at CCJC. Apparently Ron has diabetes and recently lost a leg to the disease, blindness may be an issue as well. Too bad, he was a great guy during his tenure at Coffeyville.

If I hear anything else, I'll serve it up...

jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
1/26/2006, 12:37 PM
are you saying that foster is the guy that found all of boo's diamonds?

The Consumate Showman
1/26/2006, 01:13 PM
Is Walker still on for Friday morning announcement st 8:15????

Salt City Sooner
1/26/2006, 01:48 PM
I got the chance to talk to coach Foster back when he was still coaching, & I was Hutch's equipment manager in the fall of '85. Pretty nice guy to take the time to talk to someone that he didn't know from the man in the moon. Of course, that didn't keep him from opening up a can on us later that night...:O

NormanPride
1/26/2006, 03:57 PM
Good read... I think unless Bowden pulls some sneaky **** tomorrow morning, he's ours. I just hope he's got the balls to take the S&C program, because we've had our fill of quitters. I know that I couldn't take it, but then again, I didn't accept the gig in the first place.

#1 SOONER FAN
1/26/2006, 04:05 PM
Damn, I hate to hear that about Ron Springs, he was a fantastic running back. I watched him in person when he was at Coffeyville, such a fluid runner. He was such a joy to watch and a super nice guy. Coffeyville has always been a good place to play football and go on to D1, I just hope Walker will become a SOONER and help us!

Rock Hard Corn Frog
1/26/2006, 05:13 PM
When my brother was a freshman at OU (during Blake years) he worked for Dick Foster (clerked or did something like that). I met him a couple of times and he was a genuine nice guy.

Also based on what my brother told me I concur that he was a big reason behind what success Blake had in recruiting.

In this particulat instance with Walker though I'm always scared of players that have motivation issues. Let's hope it works out.

#1 SOONER FAN
1/26/2006, 05:18 PM
HEY, HARD ROCK, MY SON IS A COACH OVER AT CARTHAGE.

The Consumate Showman
1/26/2006, 05:22 PM
yeah, Mr. Blake didn't come down here this year and get any kids out of Ok.

Actually, I have been told by people close to the Roark family that Craig, Chad's older brother that Blake got to come to Nebraska, wants to transfer to OU to play with his bro. I know K. Wilson didn't recruit Craig really hard, but the kid can block. He's a natural OG, great motor and technique and can really drive people off the ball in a hurry.

The Consumate Showman
1/26/2006, 05:23 PM
With OL situation, I think we have to say, "the more the merrier"........

Let's just hope we don't lose a bunch of these guys this spring/summer.....

Rock Hard Corn Frog
1/26/2006, 05:42 PM
HEY, HARD ROCK, MY SON IS A COACH OVER AT CARTHAGE.

Football I presume? They had a rough start this last year against tough competition but Carthage sure bounced back tough the second half of the season. If they had a little more size on the line they could have been real good.

#1 SOONER FAN
1/27/2006, 09:42 AM
He's the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach and they did start out rough but they did bounce back good. They were real small up front but there's always next year.

Desert Sapper
1/27/2006, 09:54 AM
Hey Rockhard,

I remember losing by a field goal in the pouring rain to Webb City back in '93. They had this all everything LB/TE stud guy named Wistrom. He was everything they made him out to be. His little brother was pretty good too. His brother kinda fell off the radar, but he's playing on Feb 5 against the Steelers.

http://www.seahawks.com/PlayersBio.aspx?PlayerID=178

Rock Hard Corn Frog
1/27/2006, 10:51 AM
Hey Rockhard,

I remember losing by a field goal in the pouring rain to Webb City back in '93. They had this all everything LB/TE stud guy named Wistrom. He was everything they made him out to be. His little brother was pretty good too. His brother kinda fell off the radar, but he's playing on Feb 5 against the Steelers.

http://www.seahawks.com/PlayersBio.aspx?PlayerID=178

Was that the Camdenton game? That was a great HS game. You probably had the better team, WC just made a couple big plays. My brother was the other D-end for WC. The Wistroms are family friends. Great people. They lived next door to us for a few years. Sad thing was the Wistroms are originally from Oklahoma and Grant grew up as a Sooner Fan. When he was a senior though it was late in the Gibbs era and although we hadn't bottomed out like under Blake OU was never really in the mix, Nebraska and Michigan. I don't know that OU would have been much better but who knows.

Grant has an older brother Chance that was my buddy growing up. He had some shoulder problems and played at Central Missouri but I think he would have been a good DI player had he been the 2nd or 3rd brother. Tracey was actually the best all-around athlete of the 3. Had potential to be a very good pitcher, was a point-forward on WCs only state title basketball team. Tampa drafted him in the 7th round and he was cut but he wanted to go into coaching so he didn't opt for NFL Europe or anything like that.